While film studios are cashing in on 3D films, many are "faking it" by converting 2D films into 3D post-production. Worse, they're not being upfront in their advertising, and many people feel ripped-off after paying extra fees for the "3D Experience." It's been claimed that conversions are now just as good as the real thing, but there's a limit to what can be done post-production. If you only have one-eye's worth of content, you can't just make up the content for the second eye.

And so here is a list for separating the real 3D films that were shot or rendered natively in 3D from the fake ones that weren't. Happy watching!

^ †. Based on rumors plus other reasoning. View page source for details.

^ 1. "The IMAX 3D camera contained a mile of film, though this allowed for only 8 minutes 30 seconds of footage to be recorded." (wikipedia)

^ 2. Since new 3D models are being created to extrude the original 2D objects, this counts to me as new content, and so Beauty and the Beast will technically be "Fake 3D." However, Disney has all the original artwork saved in separate levels, so there may not be much "filling in the blanks" done by the new animators. Instead, the conversion may be more like the process used in Meet the Robinsons (see note 3) which I categorized as "Real 3D." Plus, unlike the other "Fake" films, Beast is neither live action nor 3D animation, and so moviegoers are not being sold an inauthentic experience.

^ 3. According to this YouTube they appear to have original 3D models. I also talked to a friend of some of the crewmembers, and apparently they projected the original 2D image onto the 3D models because it was faster than re-rendering with a second camera. This is why it appears like a longer conversion process in this article. If you have the original 3D geometry, that's real enough.

^ 4. James Cameron said, "It's never going to look as good as if you shot it in 3D. But think of it as a sort of 2.8D."

^ 5. The stereoscopic supervisor mentioned to me that the CGI effects were done with real 3D (about a third of the film).

^ 6. Transformers should really be classified "Hybrid," given how much people are raving about the 3D in the film. However, between one-third to one-half of is converted, with 78 minutes converted from Legend3D. All of the CGI was converted, which may not be a problem in most movies, but considering the transformers are the stars of the film, if they're not rendered natively in 3D (which should be the case with all 3D CGI), then viewers are kind of not getting the real deal.

^ 7. Disney gave Chicken Little to a 3rd-party to convert the film into 3D. However, they provided original 3D models, so it's nearly a native rendering. This is similar to Meet the Robinsons. Ideally, they would've re-rendered with a second virtual camera.

^ 8. While the concert footage that is supposed to be in 3D was filmed with real 3D cameras, it's such a miniscule part of the entire film, that it's a lie to say that this is 3D.

^ 9. "We shot half of it in real 3D and they other half was post converted."

^ 10. The CGI will use the native 3D models.^ 11. Many have emailed about how it's mostly real 3D. Here's a behind-the-scenes of the conversion process. My gripe is that the main characters, the people, were shot in 2D. However, this is a unique movie. Most of it takes place in space, where the suits were rendered in real 3D, with the faces super-imposed within the actual suit. So it's not inaccurate to say that 90% of it is real.